I remember it like it was just yesterday. Or should I say 23 years ago.
It was a warm afternoon in Los Angeles, in 1986, and I was heading back to the office after a business meeting in Long Beach, California.
While I was getting off the 405 Exit, I noticed to my right was a track and field area. It was owned and I think it is still owned by the big toy maker Mattel Corporation.
Anyway, what I noticed in the middle of that field was a man laying down, relaxing, and just looking up into the sky and enjoying his time in the sun. Right then and there, I said “I want that kind of life, I want to just enjoy the beauty of nature around me and the energy of running.”
I realized I didn’t like my life/lifestyle at the time. I was working 12 hours every day chasing the money. I was eating the wrong foods. I was drinking beer 5-6 days a week with our customers, destroying my body to get that sale.
I realized that I could only run on Sundays a few times a month when I didn’t work or when I didn’t bring work home.
I realized that I could only run during the holidays, which were very few in those days.
I associated a day of running as a holiday because it was when I didn’t think about work, I didn’t care what time I got up. I didn’t care how long I ran. I didn’t have to be anywhere – trying to do this, and do that, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I always felt free and refreshed.
I must have wanted this freedom so badly, that in less then one year, my dream came true (in what I had thought then) in a bad way. You know that saying where “God closes one door to your life and another one is opened.”
Well, I don’t want to go into the details, but what I had thought was bad on how my job in Los Angeles ended, was actually the start of true blessings entering into my life. Through some miracle I found a profession that allowed me to run every day. I found a profession that allowed me the freedom to run whenever I wanted to, and yes, this profession also provides me a great income. And now…..
Every day of my life, for the last 22+ years, has been a holiday!
Every day is a holiday!!
Running has changed me. It has changed the way I treat myself and others. It changed the way I live. I hope and I know it will change you too. So go put on a pair of running shoes and start hitting the road to a new life.
